Mobile IM and data

[Benson80]

Can anyone tell me if AT&T requires a data package for mobile IM such as AOL/MSN.

(prepaid AT&T)

[IOWA]

Mobile IM runs on Data, so of course it requires a Data plan.

[Benson80]

Just an update about this, my girlfriend recently canceled her data plan with verizon and was able to keep mobile IM, verizon confirmed that it does NOT run on data but uses the text messaging system.

[msrhulot]

In that case, the 'mobile IM' must have just been plain SMS text. Every time I've tried an actual IM client (AOL, Yahoo), I've needed data.